Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, June 20, 2021

Gone In A Snap!

Today Pastor Michael is continuing the theme of the “End Game” and we find Paul talking to the church in Thesselonica.  Believers there were worried that others that had died before them would not be reunited with them or Christ.  Paul counseled them that there were several truths that are undeniable.  They are:  (Bible for Hope Study Notes) Eternal life begins the moment a person accepts Christ as Savior. If the believer must experience death before Christ returns, that is merely the way to heaven. Believers who have died will experience a bodily resurrection, living believers will be changed, and all will receive new, glorified bodies that will never get sick or die. Christ will return to defeat evil and death forever. Believers will live forever in heaven with Christ.

(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) Paul’s comfort is firmly rooted in the resurrection of Christ (4:14). In response to the grief the Thessalonians experience in the face of death, Paul and his associates return to the creed of the church (cf. Ac 17:3). Paul presents the resurrection of Jesus as the guarantee of the resurrection of the believers, a denial of which was, in Paul’s eyes, a virtual denial of the resurrection of Christ (1 Co 15:12–28). The dead in Christ will be raised as Christ was (see 4:16).

Today’s bible verses are found in 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15: 51-58.